Nigerian Astronaut Scam

We haven’t gotten a copy of this scam message yet ourselves, but news reports say that there’s a new type of African 419 scam in circulation: the Nigerian Astronaut Scam! (What will they think of next?)

The story is that a Nigerian astronaut is trapped in an old Soviet space capsule orbiting the earth, and if you’ll just help the scammer to bribe the Russians so he can come back home, you can have a percentage of the astronaut’s back pay, which is now in the millions!

It’s just another version of the old advance fee fraud, but still, it’s a clever one!

Our Allies

Important Note

Please be aware that scammers often use the names of real people and legitimate businesses in their fraudulent messages. Why? To lend an air of legitimacy to their criminal enterprise. Just because the name of a real person or a real bank or a real government agency appears in a scam message that doesn't mean the person or organization in question is involved in the scam in any way. The scammers are just stealing these names in order to make themselves look legitimate.